Going green doesn’t mean you’ve turned into a hippy or gone granola, it means you’ve taken a pro-active step to create an efficient, economic, healthy work or home environment. If you haven’t noticed, there is a nascent (i.e., in terms of popularity), accelerating movement in design + construction towards making buildings sustainable. It’s likely that 10-20 years from now, the term "green building" will be anachronistic. All buildings will be "smart" and independent. But for now, only a small percentage of buildings are heading in this direction and there are a few stubborn reasons to explain why. In this post, I’m going to talk about sustainable buildings in the context of commercial endeavors, but the principles apply equally to residential.

The fact is, sustainable buildings are better performers: LOWER operating costs, BETTER sales, + HIGHER productivity. Case studies abound to support this assertion, but the real question is why aren’t businesses flocking to adopt sustainable design principles in their buildings (old + new)? In a Globe St. article by Brenna Walraven, it was suggested that there are two main obstacles to green building proliferation:

Energy-efficiency Capital Myth – the myth is that the only way to improve building efficiency is through substantial, significant investments. My write-up on Adobe’s green building disproves this myth.

Lack of Awareness – this is self-explanatory, but one should consider the impetus to being unlearned on green building, especially for those professionals who make it their line of work to design, construct, + create high-caliber buildings. Is it political? Too treehugger-esque? My response to last-adopters: sustainable building is to building as Japanese manufacturing is to manufacturing.

Buildings that are resource efficient will cost LESS, not more. Why? You are using less. Big changes can be made with slight operational adjustments, and huge capital investments aren’t always required to obtain the greatest benefits for a certain project (new + old). Further, if you have an architect, property manager, or developer that says it will be too expensive to go the sustainable route, walk the other way and hire someone else. That group hasn’t been doing their industry homework. There is a huge paradigm shift in this industry. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll be like Ford, trying to figure out what makes Toyota so good. Source via Globe St.

Architectural Record always seems to find some of the best modern + green residences in the country: this month’s spotlight is on Dan + Katherine Heinfeld’s home designed by architectural firm LPA, Inc., in Newport Beach, California. LPA has a strong commitment to incorporating green concepts in their designs; they’re one of the earliest firms to get involved with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program. Mr. Heinfeld is the president of LPA, so designing his own home included the added tension of getting it right, to prove to clients that green design can be modern + luxurious.

Green Features: The house really does include a slew of sustainable features…it’s built with a Glu-lam and composite beam structure that comprises two stories, four bedrooms, and four bathrooms. Three sides of the house wrap around a courtyard/pool-area. The pocket glass and screen doors open up to the solar-heated pool area (Suntrek). The entire house was designed for efficient natural lighting, including a mostly windowless eastern orientation, an extended roof overhang on the southwestern side, an insulated, translucent skylight in the main room (Kalwall Skylight), and mechanical sunshades in every room (Lutron).

The house is powered almost completely by the 5.3 KW building integrated photovoltaics (Solar Integrated Technologies). Also, the carpet tiles (Interface FLOR) and floor (Terrazzo) are both made with recycled content. Of course, the paint is non-VOC, Eco-shield paint (Dunn Edwards). LPA even provided the Xeriscaped landscaping. Really, the Heinfelds didn’t hold anything back when putting this green + modern masterpiece together.

On October 14, 2006, the DME (Dallas Modern Expo) Modern Lecture Series will host Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner + Associates. Marmol is set to speak on the following topic: "From Design-build to Prefab: The Process of Marmol Radziner + Associates." This event is on Saturday from 2:00 – 3:00 pm, at the Frontiers of Flight Museum on Lemmon Avenue, and costs a mere $10 to attend. Tickets can be purchased online, or at the door, but seating is limited. For those of you that are die hard prefab enthusiasts, you can take a cheap Southwest Airlines flight into Love Field (right next door to the place) and attend the lecture.

This is a preview of what Marmol plans to speak about: "Bridging the divide between architecture and construction, Leo Marmol has created a unique design-build practice led by architects that combines innovative design, thorough research, and construction precision into a holistic approach to restore and create meaningful modern spaces. The firm’s multidisciplinary approach combines architecture, landscape, interior design, furniture design, construction, and prefabricated housing to create the ability to manage the execution of designs with the same rigor with which they were designed. Leo will explain how the firm’s experience in restoration of mid-century modern homes has influenced new residential projects as well as the design and fabrication of the firm’s new line of modern prefab homes."

Marmol Radziner + Associates:Marmol Radziner Prefab website. As I’m writing this post, a Treehugger feed popped up announcing a Marmol Radziner Factory Tour. Treehugger calls their prefabs "the most beautiful prefab in the world." In their factory, they produce steel-made homes that are easy to customize to modern + green standards. Actually, they’ve been designed to achieve LEED certification: they use structural insulated panels (SIPs), FSC-certified wood, low-VOC green seal paint, solar panels, natural light design, etc.! These prefabs are the embodiment of everything Jetson Green espouses: modern architecture + sustainable living. This will be an awesome lecture event.

This week’s edition of BusinessWeek has a feature on LivingHomes and entrepreneur Steve Glenn, founder of the company. Glenn is a leader in the growing movement that is green prefab — modern, prefabricated homes built with sustainability in mind. The BusinessWeek feature also includes a slide show of the first LEED-H Platinum certified home in the country, and some of photos are pictured above and below.

The official opening for the J. Lindsay Embrey Engineering Building is set for September 8, 2006. This event marks the beginning of an explosion of green building projects slated for the Dallas area. Sustainable construction is here to stay, but this project could be a precursor to greater things at SMU…namely, the Green Presidential Library!

Green President Bush Library:There’s a heated race for the Bush Library, and SMU is one of the finalists. The Embrey Building embodies SMU’s commitment to responsible, efficient building practices. It’s not that big of a stretch to think that if SMU were to receive the nod for Bush’s Library, it would build the library in a sustainable manner. Understanding there are a myriad of intricacies before that process works out, let me just put this into the blogosphere: Bush should pick SMU and top off his presidential legacy by building the first green presidential library in the country.

I should add, in full disclosure, that SMU is my school of choice for two graduate degrees (JD & MBA), so I have a modicum of bias. But all partisan allegiance aside, I hope SMU can continue its green building legacy with future sustainable building. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let me talk about the building. I know, it’s not really modern, it’s Collegiate Georgian architecture, but the LEED stuff is what I’m going to hammer away.

Turner Construction:Recently, I blogged about Turner being #7 in large design and construction firms for having LEED Accredited Professionals (LAP). This Embrey Building isn’t the only green building in the Turner Portfolio. Purely in the Dallas metroplex, Turner is renovating Haworth‘s two floor furniture showroom (LEED), constructing the new LEED Corgan Associates offices in the West End, and completed Wal-mart‘s green prototype store. Not bad Turner!

Embrey Building Features:There’s a rather detailed article about many of the things SMU did to receive LEED points, but I want to talk about just a few:

A three story light column funnels natural light into the interior

The lighting system is run by motion detectors

High reflective pavers (with marble chips) reflect heat from the building for cooling

Rainwater is captured and held in a tank across the street

Gray water is used for drought tolerant landscaping

Landscaping will use natural pesticides rather than poisons

An information kiosk will provide information on sustainable building and real-time building stats on building temperature and power usage

All lumber has chain of custody certificates from certified forests

To quote the SMU Dean of Engineering, Dean Geoffrey Orsak said, "A decade from now, I can’t imagine constructing a building that doesn’t include at least some aspects of LEED…once you’ve built one, you will want all of your buildings to be LEED certified." Yes, indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, green building is the trend.

The number of LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED AP) has increased 20 percent year over year, bringing the total number of LEED APs to 25,000. Accreditation is received from the USGBC, and the rapid increase in LEED APs is a sign of the trend towards sustainable design, construction, and architecture.

BD&C’s article lists LEED AP numbers for each of the top 100 giant design and construction firms. This information is helpful, especially for companies and developers making their first foray into the green business, because it demonstrates who has the knowledge and expertise to build green.

Green building and sustainable design is a major trend that anyone in the industry should start to realize: real estate agents, designers, engineers, architects, contractors, home builders, developers, owners, REITs, RE management companies, etc.